


Don't Fall in Love with a Coworker

by YaGirlClutchie



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 04:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14560998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaGirlClutchie/pseuds/YaGirlClutchie





	Don't Fall in Love with a Coworker

Ryan sat in his office, focusing on writing a report regarding his last client. He liked his office; it was quiet and out of the way, two elements that had become very important to him lately. He didn’t have to speak to anyone. Anyone except Rick, the janitor, who asked: “Why aren’t you with your partner in crime?” To which Ryan responded, “He’s running his own thing today.”

Ryan had a crush, a massive one on the new guy in the office, Luke. Yes, he knew that having a crush on a coworker was wrong, but he couldn’t help it. The guy was gorgeous, funny, and good at his job. He was one of the few people to pay attention to Ryan. They had worked so well together after Luke’s first few months that their boss had made them a team for a huge project: managing and developing the group of interns for their office.

The team caused them to spend more time together, and most of their conversations deviated from work into other things. Their political opinions, religious discussions, and the juicy gossip between coworkers all made it into their daily meetings. One day, Ryan noticed a new picture on Luke’s desk. “Who’s that?” “Oh, that’s my girlfriend. Her names Kathrine and she is literally the love of my life.” Luke then began to talk ceaselessly about the girl; her favorite foods, her backstory, and what movies she liked were all brought up.

Ryan had to sit there an endure it all, wanting to hate the girl for stealing the man he loved. But he couldn’t; obviously, she made Luke happy. So Ryan resigned himself to their daily conversations. He lived for those daily meetings where he could escape from his sheltered office and have important conversations with Luke. Until Luke started to change.

One day, Ryan was in Luke’s office after a meeting. They had been discussing a new movie, and Ryan said: “We should go see it with Craig, Tyler, and our other friends.” Luke gave him a look and said “We aren’t friends. We just work together.” Ryan is shocked; not only is his crush not interested in him but they aren’t even friends. So he tried to follow up with some work conversation but left quickly after to hide in his office. He closed the door, sat in his chair, and put his head in his hands. “Fuck. I’m such an idiot” he cried. “What do I do now?” He knew that he couldn’t avoid Luke because of their team connection, so he decided to stay in his office as much as possible. But Luke seemed determined to torture him.

Ryan started seeing Luke everywhere; the parking lot, the break room, even the hallway near his office seemed to be Luke’s new haunts. And Luke would talk to him. And Ryan tries to fight the feelings that are growing in his heart, but then Luke smiles at him and reassures him that a mistake he made with the intern schedules wasn’t that big of a deal and Ryan knows he can’t fight the feelings. So he writes off them not being friends as Luke having a bad day.

It keeps happening. Ryan will think everything is fine, enjoying the conversations and learning about Luke even though his crush will never go anywhere, then Luke will hit him with an emotional gut punch out of the blue. One week it’s leaving him out of a meeting (which would be a professional slight even without the crush), the next Luke is accusing him of getting out of his car on purpose at the same time Luke drives into the parking lot. All interspersed with days of compliments and teamwork and acting like everything is fine in front of the interns.

One day, Ryan just breaks. He finds out that Luke had been telling some of his other coworker’s outright lies about Ryan: that he wasn’t good at his job and was annoying to work with among other things. After he found out, Ryan locked himself in his office for the rest of the day. He heard Luke’s voice out in the hallway, and though he could literally feel the skin on his arm reaching out to open the door, he resisted. He decided to leave work late that night, only to see Luke leaning against the car door.

“Hey man, what has you here so late?” Luke said. Suddenly, a rage he didn’t know he had boiled up inside Ryan.

“What the fuck do you want from me?!?” he yelled. “You compliment me, talk to me like you want to hear what I say, praise me in front of the team, and now I see you outside waiting for me. But all I hear about is you talking bad about me behind my back and see you trying to force me out of the leadership of the team. So what is your problem?” Ryan felt tears coming down his face. He didn’t want to cry in front of Luke, but he had been broken.

“Easy, I figured out you liked me,” Luke said. “And I have a girlfriend. So I’m keeping you my teammate, but every time you start getting too close, I have to knock you off balance. I’m keeping you in check.”

“You think I needed you to do that? I was doing just fine on my own. And considering everything you’ve done to ‘keep me in check’ is lies, you’re hurting me professionally. So you know what? You don’t have to do this anymore. I’m done feeling anything for you other than the minimal respect you get as a coworker. Now get away from my car.”

With that Ryan gets in the car, slams the door, and speeds away. Or at least he tries to. In fact, he gets a couple of blocks away from the office when he has to pull over. Tears cloud his vision, and he is sobbing so hard he can’t breathe. It’s too much, too painful, too excruciating of a hurt to endure.

The next morning, Ryan arrives at work early, with red eyes and dishevelled hair. He shuts himself in his office and doesn’t speak to anyone. Anyone except Rick the janitor, who asks “Why aren’t you with your partner in crime?”


End file.
